What if Knowing God is Simpler, and More Demanding, Than Religion Made it?
After removing all the things religion may have added and examining all the things we may have simply inherited, we are left with an important question: What is Christianity actually centered upon?
Jesus gives us an answer that is remarkably simple.
In John 17, as He prays to the Father before His crucifixion, Jesus says:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”— John 17:3 KJV
That statement is almost startling in its simplicity. Jesus does not describe eternal life primarily as belonging to the right denomination, mastering a theological system, maintaining a religious schedule, participating in enough Christian activities, or becoming knowledgeable enough to answer every doctrinal question correctly. He brings the entire matter back to relationship: that they might know Thee.
Perhaps knowing God is simpler than religion has sometimes made it.
But before we become too comfortable with that statement, we need to understand something else. Knowing God may also be far more demanding than religion has sometimes made it because a religious system can often be satisfied with our participation.
God wants us.
Knowing About God Is Not the Same as Knowing God
There is an important difference between knowing information about someone and actually knowing that person. We understand this naturally in human relationships. I can read someone’s biography, know where that person was born, understand what he accomplished, recognize his voice, quote things he has said, and still never have known him personally.
The same distinction can exist spiritually.
We can know biblical history. We can explain the Trinity, salvation, sanctification, justification, prophecy, spiritual gifts, covenant theology, dispensational theology, or whatever theological framework we have studied. We can memorize Scripture and become extremely familiar with Christian language. We can listen to sermons for decades and accumulate an enormous amount of information about God.
None of those things are wrong. Theology matters because what we believe about God matters. Scripture matters because Scripture reveals God to us. Doctrine matters because false ideas about God can lead us away from Him.
But knowledge about God is meant to lead us into relationship with God.
It was never intended to become a substitute for it.
This is part of what makes Jesus’ words in John 5 so sobering. As we saw in the previous blog, Jesus spoke to people who searched the Scriptures and yet refused to come to Him.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”— John 5:39 KJV
Then He said:
“And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”— John 5:40 KJV
They were studying words that testified about Jesus while resisting Jesus Himself.
That possibility should make every serious student of Scripture humble. The purpose of studying God’s Word is not merely to become knowledgeable about God. Scripture should continually bring us into greater recognition of Him, greater love for Him, greater trust in Him, and greater obedience to Him.
If our knowledge increases while our relationship with God remains untouched, something is missing.
Relationship Sounds Easier Until We Understand What Relationship Requires
When we hear the word relationship, Christianity can suddenly sound much easier. We may think, “Good. So Christianity is not about rules. It is just about having a relationship with God.”
But the word relationship does not mean the absence of commitment.
Healthy relationships require truth, trust, listening, communication, faithfulness, vulnerability, love, and response. A genuine relationship changes the way we live because another person is no longer merely an idea to us. Their presence matters. Their words matter. What pleases or grieves them matters.
If we genuinely know God, then what He says matters.
This is why Jesus can speak about both love and obedience without seeing any contradiction between them:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”— John 14:15 KJV
Jesus does not say, “Keep My commandments so that I might love you.” His love is not something we purchase through successful religious performance. Yet neither does He describe love as a sentimental feeling that has no effect upon how we live.
Love responds.
If I say that I love Jesus while continually dismissing everything He says whenever it conflicts with what I want, I eventually have to ask what I mean when I use the word love.
Knowing God is simpler than performing religion because the center is a Person.
Knowing God is more demanding than performing religion because a Person cannot be reduced to a checklist.
Religion Can Give Us Something to Measure
One reason religious systems can become appealing is that they give us visible ways to measure ourselves.
If Christianity is primarily about completing certain activities, I can determine whether I succeeded. I attended church. I read my Bible. I prayed for thirty minutes. I volunteered. I gave money. I participated in the program. I avoided certain behaviors. I completed the study.
Again, those activities can be good. Some are clearly part of faithful Christian life. The problem comes when completing them becomes our definition of spiritual maturity.
External measurements can give us a sense of control because we know when we have finished.
Relationship is different.
There is no box beside “Know God” that we can check and declare complete.
There is always more of His character to discover, more of our own hearts to surrender, more trust to develop, more truth to understand, more love to receive and give, and more areas of our lives in which His Lordship becomes real.
Paul understood this even after years of ministry and extraordinary encounters with God. In Philippians 3 he writes:
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings…”— Philippians 3:10 KJV
Paul already knew Christ.
Yet his desire was still, “That I may know him.”
Knowing God was not an accomplishment Paul had completed. It was the continuing pursuit of his life.
Jesus Continually Made Discipleship Personal
When Jesus called people, He did not merely hand them a system of beliefs and ask them to agree with it. He repeatedly used two words that required movement:
“Follow me.”
Peter and Andrew heard those words beside the Sea of Galilee. Matthew heard them while sitting at the receipt of custom. Others encountered the same invitation in different circumstances.
To follow someone requires more than agreement.
Following means that when the person moves, you move. When the direction changes, you adjust. When your preferred route goes one way and the person you are following goes another, you have to decide whether you are actually following.
This is where relationship with Jesus becomes demanding.
It is relatively easy to admire Jesus.
It is possible to study Jesus.
We can sing about Jesus, talk about Jesus, defend Jesus, write about Jesus, and even teach other people about Jesus.
Following Jesus requires something more.
It requires surrendering the right to always choose the direction.
Jesus said:
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”— Matthew 16:24 KJV
That is not religious performance.
That is discipleship.
Jesus did not say, “Impress Me.”
He said, in effect, “Come with Me.”
And sometimes where He leads will confront what we want.
Knowing God Means Allowing Him to Be God
Perhaps this is where religion can quietly become easier than relationship.
A religious system can sometimes allow us to remain in control. We learn what is expected, perform the required behaviors, avoid the forbidden behaviors, and then return to managing the rest of our lives ourselves.
Relationship with God does not remain neatly inside those boundaries.
God may address how we speak to people. He may confront our unforgiveness. He may expose pride we did not know we carried. He may challenge what we do with our money, how we treat people who cannot benefit us, how we respond when we are offended, what we entertain in our minds, what we refuse to release, or what we secretly depend upon more than Him.
He may ask us to forgive when we would rather hold onto the offense. He may ask us to wait when we want to move. He may ask us to move when we would rather remain comfortable. He may ask us to speak when silence would be easier or remain silent when we desperately want to defend ourselves.
This is where knowing God becomes more demanding than simply maintaining religious appearances.
A checklist can leave certain rooms of our lives untouched.
God does not.
“Why Call Ye Me, Lord, Lord?”
Jesus asked a penetrating question in Luke 6:
“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”— Luke 6:46 KJV
That question goes directly to the difference between religious language and actual Lordship.
Calling Jesus “Lord” is easy to say.
Allowing Him to be Lord is something else.
We can use Christian language, attend Christian gatherings, surround ourselves with Christian content, and publicly identify with Christ while still reserving the right to decide which parts of His teaching we intend to obey.
Jesus confronts that contradiction.
He does not ask why they failed to become perfect. Scripture is filled with people who stumbled, failed, misunderstood, repented, and continued following God. Peter himself denied Jesus and was restored.
The issue is not flawless performance.
The issue is Lordship.
There is a difference between struggling to obey Jesus and deciding that obedience is optional.
There is a difference between falling and refusing to follow.
There is a difference between saying, “Lord, I failed,” and saying, “Lord, I will decide whether Your words apply to me.”
Grace makes room for weakness, repentance, restoration, and growth. Grace does not transform Jesus from Lord into adviser.
Knowing God Changes What We Want
Something else begins happening as relationship with God deepens. Obedience gradually becomes more than simply doing what we are told.
Our desires begin to change.
Psalm 37:4 says:
“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
That verse is sometimes treated as though delighting in God is a method for getting God to provide whatever we already want. But there is another beautiful reality within those words. When our delight is truly in the Lord, our desires themselves begin to be shaped in His presence.
The closer we become to someone, the more we begin to understand what matters to them.
As we know God, we begin to care about what He cares about. We become more sensitive to what grieves Him. Mercy begins to matter differently. Truth begins to matter differently. People begin to matter differently. Holiness stops being merely a list of things we are prohibited from doing and becomes a desire not to allow something to interfere with our fellowship with God.
Obedience begins moving from “What am I allowed to do?” toward “What pleases the One I love?”
That is a very different way of living.
Mary Chose the One Thing
This brings us back to Mary and Martha from the first blog in this series.
Martha was occupied with many things. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet.
Jesus said:
“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part…”— Luke 10:42 KJV
The simplicity of that moment is striking.
Mary was not building anything.
She was not accomplishing anything visible.
She was not proving anything.
She was with Jesus.
That does not mean Christians should abandon responsibility and spend their lives doing nothing but sitting quietly in prayer. Mary herself would eventually have to stand up from that floor and continue living.
But perhaps what happens at His feet determines how we live when we stand up.
When relationship becomes the center, prayer changes. Scripture changes. Service changes. Giving changes. Obedience changes. Church changes. We are no longer doing these things merely because “Christians are supposed to.”
We are learning to live from relationship.
Prayer becomes conversation with Someone we know.
Scripture becomes the Word through which we learn His character and ways.
Obedience becomes our response to the One we trust.
Service becomes an expression of His love.
Worship becomes more than music.
Holiness becomes more than appearance.
Everything begins returning to the center.
Simpler Does Not Mean Shallow
Perhaps we have sometimes confused complexity with depth.
Something does not have to be complicated to be profound.
Jesus could take enormous theological truths and bring them into statements simple enough for ordinary people to understand: love God, love your neighbor, follow Me, abide in Me, forgive, believe, watch, pray, come unto Me.
Simple words.
A lifetime of living them.
“Love your enemies” is not complicated to understand.
It can be extraordinarily difficult to live.
“Forgive” is not difficult vocabulary.
Actually forgiving someone who wounded us may require profound surrender.
“Follow me” contains only two words.
Those two words can rearrange an entire life.
Perhaps this is why knowing God can be both simpler and more demanding than religion made it. Religion can become complicated while leaving the deepest places within us unchanged.
Jesus can say one sentence and expose the entire heart.
We Cannot Hide Behind the System
A religious system can sometimes provide places to hide.
We can hide behind theology.
We can hide behind church attendance.
We can hide behind ministry.
We can hide behind biblical knowledge.
We can hide behind our denomination.
We can even hide behind our spiritual gifts.
Other people may see all of those things and assume we must be extraordinarily close to God.
But God sees the person behind them.
He knows whether we talk to Him when nobody is watching. He knows whether we trust Him when there is no audience. He knows what we are unwilling to surrender. He knows whether our public Christianity matches our private lives.
This is not meant to make us afraid of God.
It is meant to remind us that relationship with Him is real.
There is tremendous freedom in being completely known by God because we no longer have to perform for Him. He already knows.
We can come honestly.
We can bring confusion.
We can admit doubt.
We can confess sin.
We can say, “I don’t understand.”
We can say, “I don’t want to obey this yet, but I want You to change my heart.”
That honesty may be far closer to genuine relationship than performing a version of Christianity that looks impressive while hiding what is actually happening inside us.
Maybe We Have Been Asking the Wrong Question
Perhaps we have spent too much time asking, “What does a good Christian do?”
That question is not entirely wrong, but it can quickly turn Christianity into a list.
Maybe the deeper question is, “What does a life look like when someone genuinely knows God?”
Such a person will pray, but prayer will not merely be an obligation.
Such a person will value Scripture, not merely to collect information, but because he or she wants to know God’s truth.
Such a person will increasingly obey, not because obedience purchases God’s love, but because God’s love has changed the relationship.
Such a person will repent because remaining close to God matters more than protecting pride.
Such a person will serve because God’s love begins overflowing toward other people.
Such a person will continue growing because knowing God makes complacency increasingly uncomfortable.
The outward practices may still be there.
The difference is where they come from.
Religion can begin outside and attempt to work inward.
Relationship with God transforms us from the inside and begins showing itself outwardly.
The Center Was Always God
Perhaps we have made Christianity complicated because human beings are very good at building things around simple truths.
We build systems.
We develop traditions.
We create structures.
We organize ministries.
We write doctrinal statements.
We create programs.
Some of those things are necessary, and many of them can be good. Structure can serve people. Doctrine can protect truth. Traditions can remind us. Churches need organization. Teachers help us understand Scripture.
The problem begins when the things built around God become easier to see than God Himself.
Jesus continually brings us back.
“Come unto me…”— Matthew 11:28 KJV
“Follow me.”— Matthew 4:19 KJV
“Abide in me…”— John 15:4 KJV
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”— John 14:15 KJV
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee…”— John 17:3 KJV
There is a remarkable simplicity running through all of those words.
Come.
Follow.
Abide.
Love.
Know.
Yet none of them is shallow.
Each one asks something of us.
What If This Is What We Have Been Looking For?
Maybe some of us have spent years trying to become better Christians when what we actually needed was to know God more deeply.
Maybe we have accumulated teachings, routines, expectations, convictions, traditions, responsibilities, and religious language while something inside us has continued longing for Him.
The answer is not to throw away Scripture, church, doctrine, obedience, discipline, or Christian community. Throughout this series, we have been careful not to confuse freedom from man-made religion with freedom from the Lordship of Christ.
The invitation is much simpler than that.
Return everything to its proper center.
Let Scripture lead you to God.
Let prayer bring you into conversation with God.
Let church help you walk with God alongside other believers.
Let teaching help you understand God more accurately.
Let obedience become your response to God.
Let service flow from the love of God.
Let every good thing surrounding your faith point you back toward the One for whom all of it exists.
Because Christianity was never ultimately about becoming exceptionally skilled at being religious.
Jesus said eternal life is to know God.
That is wonderfully simple.
And if we truly mean it, it may ask for our whole life.
Perhaps that is why Jesus never merely said, “Learn about Me.”
He said:
“Follow me.”
Much Love
~Gayla~
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